Western Digital WD1200JB With 8 MB Cache: Outperforms SCSI Drives

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Test Results

Noise Level Measurements

The very best drive for low noise levels is Seagate's Barracuda ATA IV (40, 60, 80 GB), but the WD drives have no reason to be ashamed, either. Subjectively, the idle and access noises are not intrusive, so the differences in noise level generated among the latest models can be considered quite small.

Surface Temperature

Our temperature measurement reveals excellent work for Western Digital: 45 degrees Celsius is the lowest value that we have ever measured with a 7,200 rpm drive. Though the drives from IBM and Seagate are not much hotter than that, a low-temperature drive is quite important in order to keep the whole computer as cool as possible - particularly in times of CPUs that heat up with 40 Watts or more.

Patrick Schmid
Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.